Play Session

During the late play session, I played both the normal edition, plus expansion, of Fluxx, and Zombie Fluxx. Unfortunately, I only have a picture of Zombie Fluxx in play, so I grabbed Fluxx's image off of their LooneyLabs website. As I covered in the last post, the core mechanic of Fluxx is that you have a deck of cards, which have goals and card items that can accomplish that goal. Yet, Fluxx is a chaotic game, where the goal can change at any moment, and the rules as well. Actions can be played, as one time cards, which allow you to perform what ever action is said on that card. This is the basic mechanic of all Fluxx games.

In Zombie Fluxx, there are added goals, as well as "Creeper" cards, which are Zombie based cards. There is also an element where everyone can lose the game in this version, unlike the original Fluxx game, called the Un-goal, which depends on the amount of Zombies out in play. Zombie Fluxx, can actually be added on to the original game as an expansion, to create a larger version of Fluxx.

From a developer's perspective, this is an interesting game. In card games, it's hard to introduce this element of randomness. While shuffling a deck of cards, it's highly unlikely to have the same cards in the same order twice, unless you're that bad at shuffling like I am. This adds to that you'll rarely see the same cards played in the same order. Also in card games, it's rare for rules to change so often, when rules are usually more set in stone, and while the basic "Draw One, Play One" card will never go away, nor will the actual rule cards, it's the order the players play them in which can result in utter chaos. Also in card games, it's very rare your end game goal can change at any point in time. While you still have your Keeper cards (which is your foundation to victory), they might become ineffective when a rule changes, or when the goal changes. The reason why all of this is fascinating is that this level of randomness is usually achieved by video games, which can switch on and off rules, and is controlled by a computer, and not by the player. It's also interesting to note that in this version of Fluxx, it gives you the option to make it where no one wins, and it's not considered being a "spoil sport" as it's a part of the actual game. Also, despite Fluxx being a "party game," I've rarely been able to play it in groups larger than 3-4, as most people don't have the attention span to keep playing when they're close to completing a goal in their favor, it changes. Or that element of chaos of rules pretty much changing per each person's turn, that it becomes harder and harder to play in a larger group of people.

What does Fluxx teach? First and foremost, playing Fluxx teaches you how to best play Fluxx. The second thing Fluxx teaches you is how to reason. Before playing each card, you look at your hand and have to think what is the best card that I can play to my advantage. Unless you're going for a total chaos game, and decide to play something like: Draw 6, Play All, Zero Card Hand Limit. Of course, your opponent would also learn by playing how to counter your card choice. If we want to get on a more abstract level of thinking, we could say how Fluxx represents life, and how we all have goals which may or may not work for or against us, and how we try to manipulate our surroundings in to working towards those goals. If we go by that string of logic, then you'll also run in to evil people who would rather no one win.

#2

I'm not sure what kind of game I'm going to make still. For some reason, I've been stuck on "A cat goes to the moon" and "magical girls" but not directly together. The story of a game where a cat goes to the moon, might be about a cat who protects the moon cheese from thieving mice. Maybe a sort of chase, and catch, or cartoon violence type thing. It might be a platformer, or it could be an rpg? I'm not sure how it'd work as a board game or card game though.
I honestly wasn't in class last Wednesday, so I missed the play session. I can, however, link to my favorite card game at this moment in time which is Zombie Fluxx made by Looney Labs. The core mechanic of the game is that each turn you draw a card, and you play a card. Yet the rules can change at any moment, and the goal of the game always changes. One of the reasons why I always liked this game is because it has a way to have everyone lose in the end, unlike the normal version of Fluxx. This is one of those games where you need to play to really learn it, and you just don't really read the core rules to learn how. Just read the cards, and play accordingly. My favorite goal of the game is the Zombie Apocalypse ungoal card, and I can't really say why. The game pretty much allows you to screw other players over, by constantly switching up the rules and changing the current goal card; however, there is a chance that this'll backfire on you. This is a great game to play with friends, and is really easy to pick up as you go on.